Parents Thrown Off Bus For Offending Muslim By Singing ‘Peppa Pig’ Song To Their Baby

A British couple was thrown off a bus for being racist. They were singing the theme song from Peppa Pig, a children’s show, in an attempt to calm their 15-month-old crying daughter. That was offensive to a Muslim passenger on the bus, because pigs equal racism now.

The young parents were surprised at the hostility with which a female passenger wearing a hijab yelled at them when all they were trying to do was to comfort their little girl with a song from her favorite TV show, Peppa Pig. According to the National Review, Nick Barnfield and Sara Cleaves were bringing their autistic daughter Heidi home from a hospital appointment last month, and she started crying.

Her parents hoped that singing the theme song from Peppa Pig and making the snorting pig sound effects, like the character, would help calm little Heidi down. They didn’t expect it to enrage a fellow passenger.

The aggressive 30-something passenger started yelling at the couple, because, clearly, she said, the references to the pig and the snorting sounds were hate speech directed at Muslims. Reason being Muslims aren’t supposed to eat pork. According to Barnfield.

“She was saying, ‘You’re irresponsible parents teaching your child to be racist. You shouldn’t be singing that to your daughter. It’s a song about pigs and it’s racist.”

The tirade didn’t stop there, reports the couple. The woman then went to the bus driver, and told him that they were being racist and offensive to her, and that she was not happy. Cleaves told The Daily Mail that she was “shocked” when the driver told them that he was kicking them off the bus for singing a kiddie piggy song.

She said that he was not interested in their side of the story, that the pig reference was simply because it was from their child’s favorite show. He said, “just get off the bus – it’s not worth the hassle.” Even though they were still two miles away from home with a baby they had just taken to the hospital, the driver insisted, “Go now, otherwise you’ll hold up all the passengers and no-one will be happy.”

As crazy as it sounds, the family was literally forced off the bus for singing a kid’s song about a little pig. Cleaves said that she was upset that the driver just wanted to make the situation go away rather than listen to their side.

“We were really embarrassed, ashamed and upset and we hadn’t done anything wrong, just trying to make our little girl happy, but people were looking at us as if we had done something wrong.”

They got off of the bus, and had to walk home. No other bus would let them ride. “The driver from the other bus had obviously radioed out to other buses and told them not to let us on,” according to Barnfield. The walk the rest of the way home took more than two hours.

The bus line, First, is investigating the issue. There is video footage of the events of the incident, which show the woman talking to the bus driver, who denies that there were any charges of racism.

While it may seem absurd that a mom and dad singing a song from a current kid’s show to their child could be construed as racist, this is not without precedent. Peppa Pig has been at the center of a debate on racism before. As the Inquisitr reported early in September, before this incident, a video went viral in the U.K. that, just like the hijab-clad ranter on the bus, accused Peppa Pig of being racist and dangerous to children.

In the video, entitled Dangers of Peppa Pig to Muslim Children, a Muslim father points out how horrible and racist Peppa Pig is, and what a dangerous influence it is, because, alas, his little boy now wants to be a pig when he grows up. An outcry went up after the video, calling for an end to the little pig show.

The only thing is, the whole thing was a parody. There is clearly a disclaimer with the video letting viewers know it was satire.

DISCLAIMER: This video is obviously a parody. I have NOT made the page ‘Muslims Against Peppa Pig’ or any other Facebook pages of the sort. For those of you who have got offended; don’t reproduce….”

Perhaps the offended woman on the bus missed that memo.

At any rate, her perceptions of racism that were wholly unintended by the couple led to a pretty unpleasant afternoon for the family. Peppa Pig has a relatively short theme song. It may a good thing that the parents didn’t decide to eat a bacon cheeseburger on the bus and sing Old MacDonald or This Little Piggy Went to Market. The easily-offended woman may have gone downright apoplectic over the mention of so many piggies.

[image from Daily Mail]